Cops and Courts

APTOS – Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office detectives continue to investigate the death of a man found near Aptos Creek on Tuesday afternoon.

The man was a 40-year-old local transient. His name has not been released pending notification of his relatives, said Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Mario Sulay. On Wednesday morning, investigators were still trying to determine the events leading up to the man’s death.

“We are still looking into how he came to be where he was,” Sulay said.

The death is being investigated as a homicide until proven otherwise, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

A passerby reported a man floating face-up in the shallow creek around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. Sheriff’s deputies found the fully clothed man tangled in branches at the base of a steep dirt embankment, his head a few inches from the water and his feet pointing up the hill.

The man was lying nearly under the train trestle, which is about 200 feet above the creek, and not far from Aptos Creek Bridge, which is more than 100 feet above the base of the ravine.

Crime scene investigators spent several hours photographing the scene and searching for evidence while deputies canvassed nearby businesses seeking witnesses.

The man, who was Caucasian, clean-shaven and heavily tattooed, wore jeans, a black T-shirt and white Asics running shoes. From a distance, there was no blood visible or other signs of trauma.

Deputies said they didn’t know how long the man has been dead.

Wednesday morning, Sulay said the investigation had been put on hold when detectives were called out to investigate a home robbery at the house of an elderly Aptos woman.